Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

Marijuana has been deeply studied in the past few decades and has shown scientist many things that weren’t evident before. Marijuana has been linked to many health issues good and bad. It has shown to reduce stress and anxiety, help with headaches, lower blood pressure and one of the most evident and positive health affects is that it has been shown in many studies to stop and even kill cancer cells in the body. There are however negative effects that have been looked into and studied by scientist. These include, blocking memory formation, psychosis, and an increased risk of depression while using marijuana regularly. Not everything revolving around marijuana is a “health issue” though, the biggest reason that people use marijuana today is because it simply makes people feel good. That is a positive effect.

Directly compared to other legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco products, the health risk is minimal in the sense of death count to substance related deaths in the US. While Cannabis has never directly caused any deaths at any point, it does not mean it comes without health risks. A few health risks include damage to the lungs, stunting the growth of a developing teen’s brain, and some instances it could cause a lack of motivation in users. Daily and often consumption of inhaling smoke could cause damage to the lungs. Although marijuana smoke does not contain the chemicals often found in cigarettes such as nicotine, tar, and ammonia, which does not mean it is completely harmless. Inhaling smoke into one’s lungs is never healthy for them and marijuana is not excluded from this. The Effects of marijuana can also be dangerous in different scenarios. It is never safe nor smart to operate a vehicle while under the influence of marijuana as it hampers coordination and impedes the judgment of the brain. One should never smoke marijuana daily while their brains are still developing as it can lengthen and disrupt the growth of the developing brain and can also damage nerve cells. Studies show that frequent chronic marijuana users have a lower Intelligence Quotient compared to a nonsmoking population. Many argue that it is impossible to get addicted to marijuana which is not the case at all. Addiction isn’t always your body developing a dependency on a substance to function because addiction can be completely mental. Anybody in this world can get addicted to anything; it’s possible for people to get addicted to chocolate, coffee, soda, collecting something, sometimes an addiction can be helpful instead of harmful. Addiction is defined as “an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something.” Marijuana fits right into this

Although medical marijuana is used to reduce the pain of cancers, the National Institute on Drug Abuse stated that marijuana smoke can cause cancer of the respiratory tract because of the irritants and carcinogens it contains (Bergeson, 2011).

Marijuana is known to ease symptoms from medical conditions such as: muscle spasms, nausea from cancer chemotherapy, poor appetite and weight loss from chronic illness, nerve pain and seizure disorders, and more…. Marijuana won’t kill you like other drugs such as: heroin, crack cocaine, or even alcohol. According to Dave Smith (2012), “It’s a fact that anyone can die from ingesting too much aspirin, or too much coffee, or too much wine. Marijuana, on the other hand, medical or not, is not only non- lethal, but likely beneficial. Several studies, some published as recently as a few months ago, have shown that marijuana can even be good for your health, and could help treat conditions better than the solutions being cooked up in the labs. There has never been a single death from marijuana use, recreationally or just medical use. Even, prescription drugs are known to kill people, nearly over a hundred thousand each year. Marijuana can help your health not hurt

Legalization of marijuana is one of the most controversial topics in American society today. Surveys done by the US Government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive showed that 95 million Americans have used marijuana. There are two opposing sides that have strong stances on whether it should become legal or should remain illegal. We have one side that is anti-marijuana and the other is pro-marijuana. Each side provides valid and strong arguments supporting their views. The purpose of this paper is to carefully examine each opposing side and try to find some way to come to a compromise.

Can a drug that is responsible for thousands of arrests each year actually be considered beneficial? Cannabis Sativa, or more commonly know as marijuana, has been previously known as a 'gateway drug '. It is the most commonly used illicit drug amongst varying age groups in the United States.

At the beginning of the year when marijuana was legalized in the state of Colorado there were a lot of concerns and complaints, most of them had to do with the children being able to access marijuana easier or being more likely to be exposed to it. For many anti-marijuana activists though there was the fear that legalizing this drug would increase the number of marijuana users, and would potentially increase crime rates; concern was raised that the number of pot users would possibly increase from the legalization, and would then lead to an unwelcome acceptance of drug using behaviors as well as drug users within the community. I have found evidence that this fear is

Marijuana is a very controversial topic in today’s society for a lot of different reasons. Much of the country is divided between whether or not the drug should be legalized, and as of today only 8 states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. There is great deal of evidence that proves that legalizing marijuana would be a great move for the United States government such as the numerous health benefits of marijuana, the relative safety of marijuana when compared to other drugs, the immense amount of money the U.S economy could gain through the marijuana industry, the potential billions saved in law

Marijuana, hemp, Mary Jane, pot, reefer, herb, kush, sticky icky, and weed. Whatever one may refer to the drug cannabis as, it is no stranger to the typical American. With support for the legalization of marijuana growing rapidly in numbers over the years, the debate over decriminalizing the drug is more important now than ever. Over 50% of Americans now support legalizing the drug. In a random Twitter survey given out, thirty five of the forty people were for the legalization of marijuana when asked, “ Do you believe marijuana should be legalized?” Many people today believe that marijuana is not as dangerous as it has been said to be. Even the president, Barrack Obama,

Marijuana is most commercialized drug in the world, so why not just legalize it? Although there are legal restraints against marijuana, 1 in 3 Americans have tried it, out of curiosity at least once. Multiple studies have proven that, marijuana is psychologically and physically healing. Medical marijuana should be legalized for its beneficial advantages, such as, treating or preventing health conditions, increases in tax revenues, and improvements in our communities.

The American coalition- an anti-immigrant group in 1980 had this to say about the drug, “Marihuana, perhaps now the most insidious of narcotics, is a direct byproduct of unrestricted Mexican immigration.” It is through seclusion, Nixon’s outright war on drugs, and society’s fervent dislike for marijuana user that the subculture grew. It came to a point where one could not discern fact from myth about marijuana in the 60s/70s war on drugs, mainly because no research was allowed.

But what needs to be known before a user can safely and completely make the decision if trying Marijuana is a good idea? Many do not want the drug to be legalized because they claim that Cannabis is a “gateway drug”, meaning it will cause people to try harder drugs once their body builds up a resistance to Marijuana, because a stronger drug will be needed to reach a high state. This argument is often falsely related to the medical side of the debate over legalization. It is claimed that this would be a reason not to legalize the drug. This argument, though true, is misleading and should actually be used for a reason to legalize Cannabis. It must first be understood that drug dealers use Marijuana to prey on people who like the high feeling. They convince those doing the drugs to try harder ones such as but not limited to Molly, Heroin, Meth, or LSDs. All drugs that are addictive. Peer pressure is what leads to Cannabis being a gateway drug, a unfortunate scenario that could be eliminated by putting Marijuana on the free market. If it was legal to intake users would no longer have to turn to drug dealers for their supply, therefore eliminating situation in which they could be influenced by peer pressure. So with all this in mind the fact that it is a gateway drug does not mean that it is medically unacceptable. In fact, I strongly believe that health should not be the reason why it it’s illegal and placed on the harmful drugs list because it is 0% addictive and has never

What could the United States do with 7.7 billion dollars? What could the state of Kentucky do with 5.3 billion dollars? How could the country even get this much extra money? By legalizing marijuana in the United States we could generate such revenue. There are several benefits to legalizing marijuana, which include stimulating the economy in the United States, helping patients in pain, and eliminating illegal drug use one the streets.

Almost everyone in their lifetime has been involved with a person that was addicted to drugs. Most people, when dealing with a family member or a friend addicted to drugs, want to help the drug addict in any way possible. However, many people’s attitudes change when the drug addict is not directly related to them. According to Department of Justice statistics, forty-eight percent of all prisoners in federal prison were incarcerated for drug-related crimes in 2011(Carson). Therefore, rather than being helped, drug users are being incarcerated. If our goal, as a country, is to reduce the rate of drug use and help drug addicts receive treatment, then why are we merely incarcerating those who use drugs? Although many people are against decriminalization of drugs because they are afraid of how it will affect them, few people think of how decriminalization will affect drug addicts and our country as a whole. Drugs should be decriminalized because it would benefit the economy, drug addiction treatment, drug addicts, and increase personal freedom for all United States citizens.

Many studies have shown that the “more marijuana one uses, the more likely one has the risk of developing head and neck cancer” (Giannasio). This is why marijuana is as harmful as tobacco because the more one consumes it for medical uses or even just as an escape from reality then, the bigger the chance that person will develop head or neck cancer. In addition, “it has been proven that a smoke of marijuana “contains 50%